Saturday, October 06, 2012

O-ctober

After a month of being a default Orioles fan, we get to do it all over again, as they'll be playing the Yanks in the ALDS starting Sunday night. This series is obviously way more important than winning the division, O's, so please, don't fuck around, and that means no Endy Chavez in the batter's box.

What a crazy whack funky scene in Atlanta tonight. Seemed like a shitty call, but what some people probably don't realize is that umpire made that call to help the offense. That's what the infield fly rule is for: not letting the defense get a cheap double play. That ump waited and waited, and once he saw that shortstop's arms go up (which in his mind meant the player is now calling for, and waiting to catch, the ball), he basically said to the fans, "Fear not! No defender shall make a mockery of this great game! I shall grant them an out so as they do not taketh two...." And it backfired all over his face. Of course one could argue that it was basically a fly ball to the outfield and that the ump shouldn't have been thinking infield fly, but as long as an infielder's involved, he's gotta treat it as an infield pop-up. I guess.

I don't necessarily think it was a bad call, but with the general vagueness, and judgement aspects making it at least something you could accuse of following the letter of the law rather than the spirit, I see it as another reason not to like this 1-game-playoff format. Baseball is designed to respect the law of averages, and it just sucks to have your season hinge, (partially by design), on the flukey circumstances of a single game.